Why Edgardo Henriquez Could Be This Year’s Orion Kerkering

Last year, Orion Kerkering began the year in Low-A and ended it pitching significant innings in the Phillies’ bullpen during the postseason.

The Dodgers have a pitcher tracking on a similar path.

When the year began, Edgardo Henriquez was in Low-A Rancho Cucamonga. For a 2018 signee out of Venezuela coming off Tommy John surgery, Rancho Cucamonga had to seem light years away from Dodger Stadium, even if it was only an hour down the road (if traffic cooperated).

But the buzz was already building. Baseball America’s Josh Norris highlighted Henriquez as one of 70 players standing out on the spring training backfields.

It was a big step forward for a pitcher who had been slow to develop until this year. Henriquez had mainly caught before the Dodgers signed him. Sometimes he would flash a 100 mph fastball. But in the Arizona Complex League in 2021, he was just as likely to leave a 95 mph fastball over the middle of the plate as he was to get a 100 mph heater over the top of a hitter’s bat.

Henriquez made some progress in 2022, but an elbow injury derailed that progress. He missed the 2023 season because of Tommy John surgery. Henriquez was Rule 5 eligible last winter, but no one considered taking a pitcher coming off an elbow injury without success in Low-A.

The Dodgers had Henriquez start while he was at Rancho to start this year, but only in two-inning stints. He moved to the bullpen when he was promoted to Great Lakes in early May. He immediately took to the new role. It seemed to fit like a glove. The same can be said for Henriquez’s pants, which strain to cover his tree trunks of legs.

Henriquez currently ranks 11th on a well-stocked Dodgers Top 30 Prospects list. Normally relievers don’t rank that high, but he’s not a normal reliever. Henriquez’s 42.4% strikeout percentage is second best among MiLB relievers with 40 or more innings. He trails only the Brewers’ Craig Yoho.

But it’s how Henriquez does it that makes him even more interesting. Henriquez has a 99-103 mph fastball that eats up hitters with both its velocity and its cutting life. He pairs it with a power cutter/slider that sits 92-93 mph.

Henriquez has the mound presence and confidence of a future closer. When he left a fastball over the plate for a home run against Corpus Christi last month, he responded by striking out the next three batters with fastballs that sat at 101-102 and a 96 mph slider that could be regarded as simply unfair.

It’s all power when a batter steps in against Henriquez. He used to throw a changeup when he was a starter. As a reliever, he has simplified to two/three pitches. Sometimes his cutter and slider blend together, and other times they are two distinct pitches.

Even with a low-90s breaking ball, it does act as an offspeed pitch. Hitters gearing up for 102 mph often lock up on Henriquez’s sliders and cutters for called strikes. Sometimes when he works up in the zone to righties, you’ll see them duck away from sliders that are called strikes. When you aren’t sure on whether you’ve ID’d a 100+ mph fastball heading toward your head or a 93 mph front-door slider, understandably hitters sometimes err on the side of caution.

Because of his cutter and the cutting action on his fastball, he’s actually even better against lefties than righthanded hitters. Lefties are hitting .123/.275/.175 against him. Righties hit .181/.284/.325. Eight of the 11 extra-base hits he has allowed this year have come to righties, even though he has faced lefties 42% of the time this year.

Henriquez did struggle with control early in the season. He had a 57% strike percentage in April and a 59% strike percentage in May. But that came as he was shaking off the rust of missing the entire 2023 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Since June arrived, he has had a 63.7% strike percentage that is above the MiLB average. And he has done that while climbing from Class A to Double-A.

That doesn’t mean that Henriquez dots the corners. He throws as hard as almost anyone in baseball, which means that controlling that power and arm speed is a tough task. He’ll sail a fastball out of the zone or spike a 58-footer from time to time. A 100 mph fastball last month got away to hit Aaron Zavala (thankfully in the shoulder). The next batter ducked out of the batter’s box on Henriquez’s first pitch, which was a slider that caught the zone. Two feeble swings later, he sat back down.

And as the weather has warmed up, Henriquez’s fastball has gotten even better. He’s sitting at 100 mph or harder in more recent outings and regularly touching 102, with 103 there whenever he needs it. He touched 103.5 mph (a season high) on Sunday.

According to the Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya , the Dodgers are promoting Henriquez (along with Alex Freeland and Dalton Rushing) to Triple-A Oklahoma City for Tuesday’s game. In the case of Henriquez, this seems like a logical final audition. Multiple scouts who saw Henriquez this year say that his stuff should play in a big league pen right now.

The Dodgers added Michael Kopech at the trade deadline to add another power arm to their bullpen. In one week, Kopech has already thrown three of the Dodgers’ seven fastest pitches from a big leaguer this year.

But Los Angeles has an even bigger arm now one step away from Dodger Stadium. If Henriquez thrives in Oklahoma City, it’s not absurd to think we could see a reliever cover all four levels of the minors and make it to the majors to pitch in the postseason for a second season in a row.

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